Rhode Island
Articles
05/27/2008 – The Providence Journal: “Bills Change How State Treats Criminals”, by Cynthia Needham
“Amid the calls to curb underage drinking and stiffen penalties for hit-and-run accidents, legislators are pushing bills that limit drug sentences, reduce time in prison, change probation rules and erase records for some offenses.”
03/28/2008 – The Providence Journal: “House OKs Bill to Cut Population at Prison”, by Amanda J. Crawford
“House lawmakers have approved a proposal that would allow prisoners to earn extra time off their sentences for good behavior, but have eliminated the provision that would award credit for participation in rehabilitation programs.”
02/05/2008 – The Providence Journal: “Plan To Reduce Prisoners Questioned”, by Cynthia Needham
“Critics yesterday questioned the Carcieri administration’s plans to divert inmates from the state’s adult and juvenile prison facilities as a way of saving money and preventing overcrowding.”
01/18/2008 – The Providence Journal: “Carcieri Looks To Eliminate $151-Million Budget Deficit”, by Steve Peoples, Katherine Gregg and Cynthia Needham
“Governor Carcieri unveiled a deficit-avoidance plan yesterday that forces all state employees, local communities, immigrant children and even motorists using hand-held cell phones to help close a $151-million budget hole over the next six months.”
01/11/2008 – The Providence Journal: “Proposals Aim to Cut Inmate Population”, by Katherine Gregg
“A packet of early-release proposals — aimed at reducing the state prison population by at least 211 inmates — is headed to the legislature, with advocates hoping the seriousness of the state’s financial situation and the possibility the state may soon hit a court-imposed inmate cap will make lawmakers more amenable this year to some of the proposals.”
07/26/2007 – Boston Globe: “R.I. Gets Permission to Add Prison Beds“
“Rhode Island’s prison system can add more than 150 beds at the crowded Adult Correctional Institutions, under an agreement reached this week with a lawyer for a group of prisoners.”
07/08/2007 – The Providence Journal: “Trying 17-Year-Olds as Adults Might Not Cut Costs”, by Elizabeth Gudrais
“A new law that treats 17-year-olds as adults on criminal charges may not save as much money as the governor and the General Assembly had hoped.”
07/08/2007 – The Providence Journal: “Don’t Expect R.I. to Send Inmates to Other States”, by Elizabeth Gudrais
“With much discussion this legislative session about relieving prison crowding, one option, adopted by at least eight other states, received no attention here: transferring inmates out of state to privately run prisons — often for significant savings.”
06/26/2007 – The Providence Journal: “New Drug Treatment Slots Readied for Parolees”, by Elizabeth Gudrais
“When the state budget won final passage last week, despite the governor’s veto, lawmakers declared it a major victory that they were able to earmark $1 million for drug treatment for parolees in the same budget year they had to close a $300-million deficit. But setting aside the money was only half the battle.”
06/21/2007 – The Providence Journal: “Senate Cuts Drug-Sentencing Prison Terms”, by Elizabeth Gudrais
“The state Senate voted yesterday to give judges more discretion in sentencing drug offenders by eliminating mandatory minimum sentences.”
06/20/2007 – The Providence Journal: “Doing Time on Prison Reform”, by Elizabeth Gudrais
“True to their word, lawmakers are doing something about the size of the state’s prison population, which continues to set records in terms of the number of inmates and the cost to taxpayers.”
06/06/2007 – The Providence Journal: “No Escaping the Numbers”, by Tom Mooney
“One of Governor Carcieri’s policy initiatives for the next fiscal year — reducing the prison population by 500 — won’t be realized.”
04/08/2007 – The Providence Journal: “R.I. Faces Stark Choice on Prisons”, by Tom Mooney (Registration required)
“Key lawmakers huddled behind closed doors at the State House last week to hear consultants suggest ways the state might reduce its swelling prison population by 500 inmates and ease the expected budget deficit for next year.”
04/04/2007 – The Providence Journal: “Bill Would Limit Prison Time for Probation Violators”, by Elizabeth Gudrais (Registration required)
“Are the state laws surrounding probation violations stacked against convicted criminals who serve their time and then attempt to move on and lead normal, productive lives?”
04/04/2007 – The Providence Journal: “Group Suggests Ways to Lower ACI Population”, by Katherine Gregg (Registration required)
“Divert more convicts from prison to alcohol and drug treatment. Increase the number of criminals on home confinement. Parole scores more prisoners than has been the recent practice. And for those prisoners who don’t qualify for any of these get-out-of-jail alternatives: offer them the opportunity to earn more good-time days, toward early release, than current law allows.”
03/23/2007 – The Providence Journal: “Dealing with Prison Crowding”, by Elizabeth Gudrais (Registration required)
“Lawmakers yesterday began what promises to be a long and complicated conversation on how to ease the strain on the state prison system.”
03/17/2007 – The Providence Journal: “R.I. Proves Resistant to Prison Alternatives”, by Tom Mooney (Registration required)
“While lawmakers grapple with a potential multimillion-dollar budget deficit and Governor Carcieri talks of somehow reducing the prison census by 500 to save $4 million, just next door Connecticut has contracts with 50 halfway houses, has freed up 1,200 prison beds and has saved millions.”
03/08/2007 – The Providence Journal: “Prison population, costs climb”, by Tom Mooney (Registration required)
“With the department already offering up what one committee member called unrealistic options – such as closing parts of the state prison to cut costs – and the governor talking vaguely of releasing 500 inmates to serve the same purpose, committee members were eager to hear about specific remedies.”
02/17/2007 – Providence Business News: “A Growing Challenge at ACI”, by Justin Sayles
In fiscal 2007, the state expects 19,752 commitments to the state prison system, nearly 5,000 more than in 1997 and 1,300 more in 2006. As a result, midway through the fiscal year, the prison population was averaging 3,741 – 400 more than was budgeted for. (The state’s total prison capacity, not counting hospital beds, is 3,892.)
02/09/2007 – Journal State House Bureau: “Revenue from Beer Tax Increase Would Go to Treatment Programs”
Looking to generate more money for alcoholism treatment programs, one state representative is suggesting increasing the tax on beer.
02/02/2007 – Associated Press Newswire: “Plan to Reduce Inmate Population Raises Concerns”
“Gov. Don Carcieri’s plan to reduce the number of prison inmates in Rhode Island by 500 has worried some law enforcement officers who say it puts financial priorities ahead of public safety.”
01/31/2007 – Journal State House Bureau: “Carcieri Holds the Line on Taxes in His $7.3 Billion Budget”
The Adult Correctional Institutions is at 95 percent capacity and growing. The governor wants to save money by putting more criminals on probation or home confinement – saving about $4 million. About $985,000 would be reinvested into community corrections by hiring new officers for probation or home confinement.
01/24/2007 – The Phoenix: “Can RI Back Away from the War on Drugs?”, by Ian Donnis
“When Rhode island voters narrowly approved a measure last November to allow felons on probation to vote, it marked an important step away from the kind of supposedly “tough on crime” policies that have long typified American criminal justice policy.”
01/12/2007 – Narragensett Times: “Warehousing People Doesn’t Solve Addiction”, by Marica Grann O’Brien
When people go to jail, they become invisible. They might as well be in a Russian gulag, for all the attention the public pays to them. Even friends and family are known to drop by the wayside. Never mind that virtually all of them will return someday to live among us.
01/10/2207 – The Providence Journal: “Legislators investigate cost of drug treatment for inmates”, by Elizabeth Gudrais
With Rhode Island’s prison population at an all-time high, lawmakers are asking whether the state can move some inmates into drug treatment programs to save money and address a social problem at the same time.
12/19/2006 – Associated Press: “Rhode Island Lawmakers Confront Budget Woes, Search for Savings”, by Ray Henry
Rhode Island’s newly elected lawmakers return in two weeks to the state Capitol where they’ll find an estimated $359 million deficit waiting for them and no quick fixes.
Closing that financial gap could prove tricky since the prospective Democratic leadership teams in both the House and the Senate said in interviews Tuesday that they are against tax increases and don’t want to carve into government programs.
12/08/2006 – The Providence Journal: “State Director Offers an Array of Cuts as Deficit Looms”, by Katherine Gregg and Elizabeth Gudrais
With state government staring at the potential for multimillion-dollar deficits this year and next, prison administrators are contemplating widespread layoffs and the release of hundreds of inmates.
11/18/2006 – The Providence Journal: “ACI Costs Climbing Along with Population”, by W. Zachary Malinowski
The state prison population has reached “historic highs,” and corrections officials need an additional $13 million this year to cope with the surging number of inmates, according to a top administrator at the Adult Correctional Institutions.
Audio
04/12/2007 – 630 WPRO-AM: “Inside the ACI”
"Inside the ACI" is a three-part series on Rhode Island’s Adult Correctional Institute.
03/30/2007 – WRNI: “Doing Life, On the Installment Plan”, by Nancy Cook
“This is how Rhode Island prisoners often refer to the Adult Correctional Institutions — they’re in and out of jail so often, they feel like they’re doing a life sentence in short segments.”